ARCHIVE

MORE

Former Marion resident Shannon Tajchman, 35, was glad to be home at her apartment in Kansas City, where she could sit on her couch with no makeup in sweat pants. Days earlier she had spent 18 hours doing her hair and makeup for the Ms. United States pageant in Washington D.C.

“I don’t want to do my hair and makeup,” she said Monday. “I just want to sit home and relax.”

Tajchman made it into the top 15 before she was eliminated. Competition events began Wednesday.

Tajchman lived in Marion where she was raised by her grandmother, Angela Tajchman, and father until age 16, when she moved to Great Bend to live with her mom. She currently works as a cosmetologist in Kansas City. She won the title of Ms. Missouri April 20 in a pageant for 26-to-55-year-old women.

“I want to accomplish a lot still as Ms. Missouri,” she said. “If I won [Ms. United States] I would have been able to take my platform to another level, but I can still support my causes. The best part was meeting all the wonderful women and making lifelong friends.”

“All week we were up at 6 a.m. to get ready and in bed about 1 a.m. It was exhausting,” she said.

Tajchman plans on doing what she can to advance child abuse prevention.

“I want to meet with the governor, state senate members and other community leaders to get laws for stricter punishments for those guilty of child abuse,” she said.

Tajchman had personal experience with abuse as a child.

“One in four girls and one in six boys are abused as children,” she said. “I believe by teaching people the signs and through harsher punishments I can help cut that number down.”